>Your analysis of the way the media covers up and lies is too
simplistic.Good liars lie selectively, use half-truths, etc. It is not that
there are no reports on racism in the media at all. Much of the information
I get on racism is in the media. They report it so they can control how it
comes out and put their spin on it, present it to downplay it.
>The media also oppositely is motivated to report sensationally racist acts
to sell >papers and advertising. Any sophisticated student of the media
knows these complexities to its reporting on all politically important
issues such as white supremacy, male supremacy, capitalism et al.
charles this is exactly what people were saying a while ago. where we differed was wrt the how. i was arguing that the media were unduly emphasizing nazism, happily painting klebold and harris as nazis and, therefore, as somehow violently racist--so much so that it'd bring them to shoot up a bunch of mostly white kids and plan on killing mostly white people in the neighborhood nearby as was their original plan. in other words, the media portrays the klebolds and harrises of the world as deviantly racist, violently so, and good 'merkans come to believe that that kind of racism is the onlly kind to worry or do something about. once again, then, the media focuses on individual level racism, rather than structural racism. there remains little thus far that has indicated that these kids were deeply involved in any nazi groups or that a group was behind it. furthermore, rather than acknowledging that it is quite likely that any old avg littleton type high school kid might be perfectly capable of calling someone a n-word w/o blinking, media -and the 'merikan public--finds it much easier to think of them as nazis. they'd rather imagine, "no way, not one of us. we don't say that word. and if someone does then they must be crazy, deviant, into cults, into nazism, whatever'
that's what i saw as the coverup of racism.
as for jocks: if you read hidden injuries you can see how the "good students" like klebold and harris have likely been picked on most of their lives by the jocks who don't do as well in school. perhaps they don't do really poorly, b and c level work is like, still it is customary to pick on the nerds. in an incredibly status conscious school like columbine these things become extremely important because the differences in material wealth aren't enough to mark people out. so they mark one another according to different things.
>On Littleton, I gave the list a specific example of the media blatantly
trying to prioritize the "anti-jock" theme and other issues over the
racism. The phrase was "they REALLY hated jocks".
they did didn't they? i agree that this particular article initially dismissed the epithet n-word. but i don't see anything wrong with also examining the incident to ask why they apparently also hated and singled out jocks and christians.
>What the latest article demonstrates is that there is a significant
fascistic racist problem in the area, something that you were trying to
down play yourself. We can probably assume that if this is reported , the
problem is even bigger than this report and other aspects have been covered
up and not reported.
i never said there wasn't active fascist/nazi groups in the great denver area. in fact, i reported regularly to the list about what was going on there because i have a friend who lives in denver. he's a d.j. and part of the artist community and an activist lefty so he's quite aware of what goes on and has gone on. last i heard they've been investigating the possibility that they got many of their supplies from a satanic cult about 20 miles away.
anyway, the issue that we wrangled over was the degree to which klebold and harris were directly and heavily involved in fascist/nazi organizations and whether and how much that might explain why they did what they did.
as for people not knowing anything about the media, i'm afraid that one of your interlocutors graduate training was in history of mass media and racism. that, of course, might not mean a whole lot but i can assure you that the arguments weren't simplistic or uneducated or based on unreflective knee jerk opinions.
kelley